Wayland parents, teachers and middle school students gathered again the morning of Monday, Dec. 20 to protest the recent racist incidents at Wayland Middle School. The demonstration was the third demonstration in the past two weeks.

After a middle school student’s social media post that was perceived as racially motivated and threatening was discovered on Friday, Dec. 3, racist graffiti was found in 8th grade bathrooms on the following Thursday, Friday and Monday. Students, their parents, Wayland Public Schools staff and Wayland community members have congregated at the middle school street entrance before school throughout the past two weeks, carrying handmade posters and encouraging entering vehicles to honk as they pulled into the middle school drive.

Superintendent Omar Easy said last Wednesday during a School Committee meeting that the middle school was in “a state of crisis.”

Since Tuesday, Dec. 14, staff from Central Office and WMS have been stationed outside each middle school bathroom throughout the day. Every middle school student has been required to sign in and out of a bathroom log before entering the restrooms, with only one student permitted to enter the restrooms at a time. The staff stationed outside check the bathrooms for graffiti after each use.

Here is a photo gallery from Monday’s demonstration.

Gallery • 10 Photos

A group of students stand together with their homemade posters. “I’m here because I believe what we’re doing is important and that wayland middle school should be a safe place,” eighth-grader Kaileigh Walker, first on the left, said.